Colouring
by TamaraneanOnMars
Summary: AU, I guess? - At least she would have a friend. The last friend she had was Cam, but she didn't talk to him anymore. He's getting ready to become 'Icicle Junior' when he grows up. She had teddy, of course, but he was being oddly quiet that day. Wally/Artemis. Oneshot, may develop into a twoshot. Dedicated to arbrick.


I got really lazy near the end. Pfft. It's late-ish. I can improve it tomorrow.

BUT HEY I DID SOME WRITING WOOP DE BOOP.

**Title:** Colouring**  
Characters/Pairings: **Wally, Artemis, Wally/Artemis******  
Summary: **She found herself smiling and sitting in front of her colouring book again, nodding. At least she would have a friend. The last friend she had was Cam, but she didn't talk to him anymore. He's getting ready to become 'Icicle Junior' when he grows up. She had teddy, of course, but he was being oddly quiet that day. Wally/Artemis. Oneshot. Dedicated to arbrick.**********  
Disclaimer: **I do not own anything at all.

**~0~0~0~**

"Teddy, do you want to colour too?"

Wally stopped, hearing the girl's voice from somewhere above him. He was in an apartment building in Gotham City, visiting one of his friends from school. He didn't really like Gotham. It was dirty. When he smiled brightly and waved at people on the street, like he was allowed to do in Central City, they always sneered down at him. His Mommy told him not to wave at them, but he did anyway. He liked being nice to people.

He was walking through the building alone, something his parents weren't too happy about - Gotham was a filthily place with people that wouldn't think twice about hurting a little boy walking on his own. His excuse was that he wanted to be like his new Uncle Barry, who was fast and didn't let mean people hurt him. When that hadn't worked, he had just used puppy dog eyes and him Mum had practically melted, saying that he could wander as long as he came straight back if he saw anyone sinister.

The five year old boy looked to see stairs leading upwards and frowned, fiddling with the end of his Flash tee shirt. He was on the top floor. He didn't know that you could go any higher. Curious, he made his way up the stairs and the sound of the girl speaking got louder.

"Do you want to colour this one with me?... But that one would take too long, and Daddy will be home soon."

He stepped out onto the room and immediately saw a girl with blonde hair up in a ponytail, a green dress down to her knees and no shoes lying on her stomach, a colouring book laid out in front of her. Next to her sat an old teddy bear that she seemed to be talking too. She was colouring a picture of a girl happily playing, and it looked like she was colouring it to make it look like her. She had put a crayon in the bear's hands to make it seem like he was colouring too, and hadn't noticed Wally yet.

He smiled and walked over to her, before taking a seat parallel to her, observing the upside down colouring book - or, it looked upside down to him. "Hey!" he greeted, grinning and sending her a small wave. Her head snapped up and she looked at him with wide eyes for a moment, before quickly crawling backwards, away from him.

"W-Who are you?" She asked, sounding slightly scared. He sent her a confused expression and realized that she was warily observing the Flash symbol on his tee shirt. He looked down at it with a frown, before looking up at her, even more confused.

"What's wrong with my tee?" He asked, sounding offended, and she glared, standing and crossing her arms.

"Who are you? Are you a hero?" She asked, glare flickering from his shirt to his face.  
He smiled at her, still wondering why she was scared.

"I'm Wally, and I wanna be a hero when I grow up! It looks awesome!" He told her, smile growing into a grin. Now she looked even more worried, like he was going to attack her. "Why aren't you wearing shoes?" He asked, looking at her feet and seeming concerned. "Don't your feet hurt?"

She blinks in surprise at his random question, but him evident concern makes her relax. "Nope." She says, almost proudly, with a childish expression on her face. Wally doesn't think of it as childish, because she was around the same age as him anyway.

Wally's short attention span soon runs out and he starts looking at her hair. "I like your hair. It's yellow. Can I colour with you?"

She blinked again. Couldn't he stay on the same subject for two seconds? First her feet, then her hair, now her colouring book? She should send him away. If Daddy found out that she talked to a boy who wanted to be a hero, he wouldn't be happy. He would be mean again and hurt her. But, despite this, she found herself smiling and sitting in front of her colouring book again, nodding. At least she would have a friend. The last friend she had was Cam, but she didn't talk to him anymore. He's getting ready to become 'Icicle Junior' when he grows up. She had teddy, of course, but he was being oddly quiet that day.

Wally grinned and scooted over so that he was next to Artemis and could see the page properly. "What's your name?" He asked innocently as he picked out the yellow crayon and started to colour the girls hair. She paused, wondering if she should tell him or not. Her Daddy really was going to hurt her when he found out.

"Artemis." She told him, taking a green crayon. He smiled at her as she coloured in the girl's dress.

"That's a pretty name." He told her, and she smiled warmly at him. She liked Wally already. Maybe he could be her new friend that she could talk to when Daddy wasn't home. The only problem with that was that he wanted to be a hero. Daddy told her heroes were bad people. They ruin stuff and stop Daddy from doing what he wanted to do. But Wally seemed nice so she didn't really care about that stuff - at least, not at that moment in time.

"I like the name Wally. It's silly." she told him, giggling slightly.

He pouted. "I don't like my name. People bully me." He told her sadly, frowning at the ground. Artemis frowned, but not sadly like he was. No, she frowned angrily.

"I beat up bullies." She told him, miming punching and sitting up, making as threatening an expression as she could, which wasn't very threatening - she was only five. Wally sent her a confused look.

"Why do you beat people up? Hurting people is bad." He told her, looking a cross between unhappy and wise. "Even if they do bad things."

Artemis stared at him for a moment as he went back to colouring, thinking about what he had said. Daddy had told her that when people do bad things, they need to be beat up. She thought everyone beat up bullies. Well, she had been taught that bullies were heroes, so she was talking to a fan of bullies, and she wasn't exactly doing anything about it. She crossed her arms and sent him a look. "Then why do heroes ruin stuff for good people?"

Wally looked at her again, blinking innocently. He didn't miss a beat. "Heroes are the good people."

She sent him a glare and wondered what to do for a moment, before she grabbed her book and stood, causing Wally to accidentally create a yellow streak across the page. She stared at it, horrified, as Wally sent her a confused look. "Can't I colour?" He asked, pouting.

She turned her glare to him and snatched up her teddy and crayons. "No." She stated in the hardest voice she could muster. It started to wobble ever so slightly as she gazed down at her book. Part of her knew she was overreacting, but he ruined her colouring book. "You're a big... a big... you're a bully!" She screeched, before storming down the stairs. Wally stared after her, feeling guilty and not knowing why.

Later that afternoon she looked out her window and saw Wally leaving with a tall ginger woman. He seemed sad. She tried to catch his eye.

He didn't notice.

**~0~0~0~**

Artemis loved tea.

It helped her calm down after a particularly hard day of training with her Dad. As soon as he left, she would go to the kettle (which she had learned how to use about three years ago, when she was nine. She taught herself) and make herself a hot, steaming cuppa. She was sipping one as she sat on the couch, watching the TV. She wasn't allowed to when Dad was around. When he wasn't, she would make the most of it.

She mainly watched the news. She had long since realized that what her Dad was teaching her was wrong, and even if she wasn't doing much to break free, she was watching the news as much as she could to see the heroes and what they did.

She remembered the boy from seven years ago. The boy that had told her what she had been ignoring. The boy with fire hair and emeralds for eyes. The boy with a grin that lit up his face. The boy that was her friend for five minutes and the boy that she had trusted immediately. The boy that wanted to colour with her and _cared_. The boy she had called a bully. She felt guilty about that. Remembering the look on his face then he had left, she knew the effect her minor name calling had. He wasn't a bully - he was on the good side.

She wondered if he doubted that.

She hummed slightly as she took another sip of her cup of liquid magic, turning her attention back to the television as a new story came on. She tuned out the reporter shouting over the commotion; "The survivors of the explosion are being taken care of, I wonder if they'll ever recover!" like this kind of thing doesn't happen every other day in their city and focused on what she could see.

The Flash ran around the rubble of the exploded building, searching for surviving. Again, she thought of that boy. '_Artemis, you only knew him for five minutes._' She thought testily. '_And that was years ago. Get over it already._'

Then, a flash of yellow in the background caught her attention. She raised an eyebrow. Before she could wonder what it was, a boy stopped in front of the Flash. "I couldn't find anyone else, U-"

The Flash grinned. "Hey, Kid, no names in the field remember? I know it's your first day, but you have to get used to that."

He laughed. "Oh, yeah, sorry, uh, Flash."

She had froze the moment he smiled at the camera. He was a boy with fire hair and emeralds for eyes. A boy with a grin that lit up his face. A boy with eyes that made her just know that he was a good person, a trustworthy person. A boy that she knew cared. Artemis suddenly knew what deja vu felt like.

The camera moved towards him and he waved at it. The reporter smiled at him. "So, are you Flash's new protege I've been hearing about?"

He nodded and the Flash laughed. "News travels fast, huh?" The older hero chuckled, resting a hand on his sidekick's shoulder. Artemis tuned out the conversations again. That boy. The boy from seven years ago. _That was him._

She could be mistaken, of course. He could just be someone that looks eerily similar. But she knew he wasn't.

Surprisingly, the fact that she knew his name didn't cross her mind once. She simply sighed and took a sip of her tea with a small smile on her face.

'_Looks like he became a hero when he grew up after all._'


End file.
